I have a few quick reports from the battlefront today.
On my own part I have engaged in discussions with Sky, Channel 4 and Cheltenham Racecourse. I have also entered a formal complaint with the Advertising Standards Authority.
The Sky customer service people were duly apologetic and sorry to be losing me. As subscriptions are paid in advance they have a month or so to change their minds and win me back (though I won’t be watching in the meantime, I have had enough of that ad.). The guy I spoke to gave me an address to write to so that I could send the complaint up the chain.
Channel 4 were only able to help me lodge a formal complaint.
The discussion with Cheltenham was interesting. They told me that the whole thing was done without their knowledge or approval. They say that they lack the necessary trademarks to prevent Paddy Power from appearing to speak for them. Nevertheless they seem strangely reluctant to make a public statement dissociating themselves from the Paddy Power stunt.
Meanwhile, elsewhere on the front, Green Party MP Caroline Lucas has opened fire on The Sun. If you are lucky enough to live somewhere that has a sane MP you may be able to ask them to support that motion.
And finally, I received email from Change.org reporting some welcome success in the video games story I mentioned yesterday:
I would just like to let you all know that as of a couple of hours ago, BioWare have released a statement on their forums and their Twitter feed condemning the abuse directed at Jennifer Hepler, and pledging to donate $1000 to Bullying Canada on her behalf.
Which is exactly the sort of thing I am coming to expect from Bioware. They seem to be very good people.
Good to hear there’s at least a bit of progress.
I went to see how people were reacting on BioWare’s form (here, for the curious) and came across a link to an interesting commentary on the incident that frames it in terms of the gamer/publisher relationship.
BioWare are terrible people, Cheryl.
This is the company that has supposedly LGB-friendly franchises that massively “bi-wash” their love interests, hired Orson Scott Card (Yes, THAT Orson Scott Card) to write an adaptive work and insulted and degraded transpeople in Dragon Age: Origins.
Will clarify that last bit.
You could go into a brothel in the main city, and there were three types of people – Male, Female and… uh… speciality. In that category were – and I quote – “Female” Dwarves, i.e. women with a… pickle surprise, to reference a Tom Rubnitz video.